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of the conspiracy seemed to be sensible, when, after the failure of the plan of insurrection in Ulster in the year 1797, they appear to have placed their dependance on the Romanists almost alone as the instruments of revolution, since among the means adopted to seduce them into the conspiracy, some, though probably the most cogent, were certainly the most adverse to the union of sects, and tended to exclude the protestants from the association-I mean the inflaming of religious hatred, and the terrors industriously propagated of the intended masacres of Romanists by Orangemen. If the protestant chiefs of the conspiracy hoped that, after the excitement of the Romanists to insurrection by such means, they should be able to controul and direct their operations, they were, I believe, most egregiously mistaken, and would have found themselves inextricably entrapped in their own snares.

Previously to this, division had taken place: among the reformists. Some, irritated at what they regarded as the obstinacy of administration, who rejected all projects of reform, coalesced with the United Irish; while others, justly alarmed at the menacing prospects of affairs, relinquished for the present all schemes of reform, and joined their efforts with those of government for the preservation of the state. The secession of these members caused the dissolution of the Whig Club, which had subsisted till near the close of

the year 1796. In a letter, dated the 29th of Nov. that year, directed to the right hon. Henry Grattan, as temporary chairman of the club, and afterwards published in the newspapers, Richard Griffith, Esq. of Mellicent, in the county of Kildare, who had been one of its most respectable members-a man of great fortune, and of a highly estimable character, for integrity and abilities both in writing and speaking-requested his name to be expunged from the list, since, when the constitution was attacked by revoluti onists at home, and enemies abroad, he thought the nation in too feverish a state for the agitation of the question of reform.

A sense of the public danger, which caused the desertion of the popular party by this gentleman and some others, caused also the adoption of a coercive system by the ministry. That some scheme of coercion was indispensably necessary, for the preservation of the existing government, cannot I think, be doubted by any person. But whether the plan of coercion digested by the ministry was in all respects judicious; and whether, if it were judiciously framed, it was executed according to the ideas of the framers; are questions whose discussion I defer to another time. To charge to the account of administration the outrages committed on loyal or peaceable subjects by men who, under the mask of zeal for the royal service, took the opportunity

afforded by the temporary suspension of legal government, to indulge with impunity the malignant diposition of their hearts, would be highly unjust. For when, by the formidable machinations of the conspirators, government was once driven to the lamentable necessity of such a plan of counteraction as involved in it aninterruption. of the ordinary course of justice, and the arming of those who pretended to be friends of Government with a kind of discretionary power, (what sort of friends some were, I have already hinted) to regulate the conduct of these, or to determine how far the outrages committed by some of them were the effects of private malice, general malevolence, or unaffected zeal in a weak and ignorant 'mind, was utterly impossible for ministers, remote as they were from the scenes of action.

Instances of useless outrages were innumerable, yet some for elucidation ought to be given. A protestant clergyman passing through a place near Newtownbarry, on the twenty-fifth of May, saw a multitude of women and children supplicating on their knees an officer of the NorthCork, for permission to save some of their effects out of their cabins which were set on fire. This was brutally refused, and the clergyman who wished to intercede, found a hasty retreat necessary for the safety of his person from the officer and his men. In the battle of Enniscorthy, three days after, this gallant officer could no

where be found, while the clergyman performed the parts of both a steady officer and an intrepid soldier. This officer, like many others, committed this act without authority from a superior, or information received by himself. Such were matters of amusement to too many.'

Why a military chief governor of well known abilities and judgment, when a military government was an inevitable expedient, was not appointed by the British ministry, I cannot pretend to know. Such a man would have arranged the army to the best advantage for the protection of the innocent, the coercion of the

* The following is an extract of a letter which I received from a brave officer, who acted a worthy part throughout the rebellion." It is a painful recollection that the records of past ages will not influence the transactions of the present generation. The ultimatums of all rebellions have enabled us to ascertain the violent methods by which the conduct of the actors has been influenced. Private piques have been revenged, party distinctions have raged with uncontrolled fury, and yet more dreadful than all, the devil gets his opportunity of swaying the minds of his friends, and gives them permission to perform acts worthy of his hellish machinations." I believe that this brave man's mind was impressed, while he wrote, beside other horrors, with that of a flogging, given by order of Lord Kingsborough, to two men on suspicion of their being rebels, on what grounds, none except his lordship knew. While the drummers were cutting the backs of these miserable men, his lordship was employed in throwing salt into the cuts; nor were their wounds allowed to be dressed for twenty-four hours, notwithstanding the pressing remonstrances of the surgeon.

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guilty, and consequently the prevention of armed rebellion, with its horrible concatenation of evils. Of the erroneous equipment of the yeoman force I have already spoken; also of the smallness of the body of soldiery sent for the protection of the county of Wexford. Concerning the experience and discipline of the commander of this body, I choose to be silent. If by the assurances of the earl of Mountnorris, contrary to the report of its magistrates, government had such reliance on the loyalty of this county, as to think any considerable force unnecessary for the conservation of its peace, why was the system of terror extended to it, when that, in such a case, would be also unnecessary? Coercion properly attempered and supported may prevent rebellion, where every arrangement is made for its eruption; otherwise it may cause rebellion where none is intended. Some counties more organised than that of Wexford remained in quiet, while civil commotion was raging elsewhere with its woful concomitants.

That, when once insurrection took place, it was attended with devastation and massacre, was naturally to be expected from the previous exasperation of men's minds, and the deepsmothered sense of severities, inflicted on some by authority, and in that case often justly; but on many others wantonly, by individuals vested with no other authority than what the affectation

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